A Swedish company is trying to solve one of the biggest problems facing the exploding gig economy

Between 2014 and 2020 PwC estimates that the global gig economy will balloon from 10 to 63 billion US dollars.

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Ework Group is ramping up offers to its consultants to accede to the demands of the future workforce.

One of the more notable offers is a pension plan much like the one offered to permanent staff in the Nordics.

By 2020, the gig economy will have grown sixfold to $63 billion dollars, PwC estimates in the report “Workforce of the future.” In the study, 60 percent of the respondents think that few people will have stable, long-term employment in the future.

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One consulting business is ramping up its efforts to accommodate the future of work. Swedish company EWork Group is one of the largest consulting suppliers in the Nordics with a turnover of 9 billion Swedish crowns ($1 billion) last year.

The company has created new benefits and services to its more than 9,000 consultants on active contracts through Ework to embrace the tendency of more project-based work in the future.

The most notable is a seemingly unique pension plan with a large Danish pension company, whose name cannot yet be disclosed.

Together with the pension company, Ework has completed a pilot project giving a select group of the consultants access to a pension plan and health insurance that until now have been exclusive to the permanent staffers working in Nordic companies.

Zoran Covic, the CEO of Ework.

Ework

“As a market leader, we have a responsibility to support the interested parties in the market,”says Charlotte Lumbye, supplier relations manager for Ework Group Denmark.

“Even though new initiatives have been launched by the Danish government, for example, to change the job-seekers allowance, we do not see a rapid enough development generally to support the actual development of the market.”

The pension plan will be offered to all affiliated consultants on contract with Ework starting from this summer. But the benefits will not stop even when the contract is terminated. Once you on the plan, you’re on the plan.

“In the gig economy, the responsibility is spread out onto several players in the market, and as one of the largest we are able to negotiate on behalf of the consultants because together we represent a noticeable volume. We want to take away some of the daily pains of the self-employed. It is not enough to make sure they get paid on time,” says Charlotte Lumbye.

Ework Group also offer courses and social events which have been requested by the consultants. It is crucial for the company to always be on top of trends to reach its goals; by 2020 they want to be the largest consultant supplier in Northern Europe with more than 15.000 consultants on assignment.

“With Industry 4.0 and the digitization, more and more people will work in gigs, freelance, and project-based. But in this new way of working, people lose the benefits of the welfare systems. It is a break with the traditional employer-employee relationship,” says Jesper Hendriksen, CDO at Ework Group.

”We have to be able to support the new workforce to be competitive. The new strategic partnership is very much aligned with this. It is quite forward-looking.”